Cash donations, hot lunches, flower sales, silent auctions…the list went on and on when it came to the Herculean fundraising efforts of a small community of school parents.
In fact, it’s strongly believed there is not one fundraiser that Blair elementary’s valiant PAC hasn’t organized in the last two years in its bid to raise $75,000 for a new school playground.
Come Sept. 13, the dream of the Blair PAC, the parents and, of course, the students, will be realized when the playground is installed.
And to make sure that every cent possible is squeezed towards the actual equipment, the community has rallied to volunteer their day to installing the playground themselves.
“A lot of planning went into this and a lot of work,” said Hana Caulfield, the Blair elementary PAC secretary and playground fundraiser.
“But we’ve had a lot of fun as a team and it has really brought the community together. It feels like we’ve organized every fundraiser imaginable over the last two years. I think we’ve exhausted the list.
“This is going to be a big celebration when it’s finally built. My husband lost me for a couple of years. He’s hopefully going to get me back now.”
The school, behind Thompson Community Centre on No. 2 Road and Granville Avenue, had two playgrounds, both of which were more than 20 years old and starting to show signs of ageing, according to Catherine Ludwig, Blair elementary principal.
The original fundraising target was $65,000, but had risen to almost $72,000 over the course of the near two years it took to get the cash together.
“Earlier this year, we took three different renderings to the students and asked them to vote on their favourite components and tell us why,” explained Ludwig.
“It’s been a fantastic way to get the students involved. They chose a zip-line, a climbing rope-wall and a clamber (wobbly) bridge.
“We got a final rendering made with all the components and had to have one last fundraiser in the spring to meet the target.”
Ludwig said, after explaining to the contractor, Habitat Systems, that they wanted to use as much of the money as possible to go towards the playground components, it was suggested the parents implement a “community install” program, whereby members of the community build the playground, under the contractor’s supervision.
The move produced more than $12,000 in savings, said Ludwig.
“It didn’t take too long for all the spots to be filled by the parents for the install,” she said. “And those not involved in the install will be helping with a barbecue lunch on the installation day. It will be a real community effort.”
The PAC, however, needed to find its own tools for the install and the school district’s maintenance department has offered to help them out and also do the site preparation, all of which saved even more money.
